Welcome Everybody

This is a very special day for Swindon, the Old Town Community and for the Old Town Partnership of Churches of which Christ Church was a founding member in 1969, the year our previous community centre was built.

 I love bridges because bridges connect people and places. While I am no engineer I am a passionate bridge builder which is why I am so excited about today. This building is like having a new bridge in Swindon.

The vision of Christ Church is to be at the heart of the Old Town community. We love welcoming people of all backgrounds and ages to meet on this site for a whole variety of activities.

This new community centre enables us to increase our hospitality and make more meetings and activities possible for which we are very grateful. For many years Ideas have been considered, now we have a physical building of which we can all be very proud.

As Swindon Town Football Club Chaplain I love teams. The best teams are the ones who work really well together. Today would not have been possible without a huge amount of team work.

As your Vicar I want to say thank-you to God and to all those people who have worked so hard to get us to this point. We are especially appreciative of the Borough Council for the 106 grant, to the Christ Church PCC for their considerable financial commitment, to the Grant bodies and individuals who have donated finance and gifts in kind. To the volunteers who have given so much time and expertise. You all know who you are but on your behalf can I especially thank Stephen Grosvenor, Mike Palmer and Daniel Pitt. Our architect Anthony Feltham-King, our builders Timberworks and our Community Centre Development Manager Chris Smith who have shared their expertise bringing us to this point and new beginning. Thank-you each of you.

Shortly we will have the official opening by a previous neighbour of the Vicarage , Nick Hewer !

You will then have the opportunity of looking at a specially commissioned painting ‘Christ church at the heart of Old Town’ by artist Laurie Plant.

Also the Garden of Reflection designed by Rachel Titcombe with the William Morris Memorial centrally placed. This is a work in progress.

We are delighted to have such imaginative, creative features central to our community centre. William Morris, as you know, was the first Editor of the Swindon Advertiser. Not all of us are journalists but each of us as human beings can tell stories and pass good news on. I am sure you would agree that today is truly a good news story for us all and for our fellow Swindonians who are not here. Please join with me in passing the good news on

The Community Centre @ Christ Church is truly a special place where hospitality, friendship and a warm welcome are guaranteed. Let’s resolve, whoever we are, as Community Centre team-mates to make its future a great success by continuing to work together.

It is a great joy to me to have our Bishop of Swindon the Right Reverend Lee Rayfield to pray a prayer of blessing for our new centre and our Swindon Community